In recent years, disk devices such as magnetic disk drives and optical disk drives have widely been used as external storage devices of computers and image recording devices.
As such a disk device, for example, a magnetic disk drive generally comprises a magnetic disk provided in a case, a spindle motor which supports and rotates the magnetic disk, and a head gimbal assembly (HGA) which supports a magnetic head. The head gimbal assembly includes a suspension attached to a distal end portion of an arm, a wiring member (a flexure or a wiring trace) provided on the suspension, and a magnetic head supported by the suspension through a gimbal portion of the wiring member. The wiring member includes wirings electrically connected to the magnetic head.
In recent years, there is proposed an HGA wherein thin piezoelectric elements (PZT elements) serving as drive members are mounted in the vicinity of a gimbal portion of a wiring member, and a magnetic head is minutely displaced in a seek direction by expansion and contraction of the piezoelectric elements. According to the HGA, the operation of the magnetic head can be minutely controlled by controlling a voltage to be applied to the piezoelectric elements.
In the HGA, when a disk device is impacted, there is a possibility that a stress acts with concentration on the wiring member or drive members, and thus the wiring members or drive members may be damaged.